Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2 Review

Pain, patience and button combos -- that is my ninja way!

There are two things that unite every ninja: pain and patience. If you're thinking about picking up Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2, a worthy addition to any anime fan's library, prepare to be hazed into the warrior brotherhood. This game causes pain and requires patience by the throwing-star load.

If you clicked here by accident and have no idea who or what Naruto is -- don't worry, you can get back to checking IGN Babes in a second -- the simplest answer is wacky anime. In magna comics and on TV screens worldwide, the young ninjitsu warrior Naruto and his buddies are on a constant quest to best evil through brain-busting moves and explosive techniques.

Cobra Kai!

The unique style of the series -- fights stop mid-punch to cinematically showcase devastating attacks in crazy cutscenes -- carries over to the videogame franchise quite well. When Naruto: Ultimate Ninja dropkicked its way onto the PS2 last summer, fans got their fix of wicked knockout animations, terrible English voiceovers and combo-laden battles. All those qualities have been carried over to this bright, colorful sequel, but it's that refined combo system that's going to bring pain to your life.

Physical pain.

It's not that the fighting style is hard to understand. Circle attacks, square uses items, X jumps and triangle performs Secret Techniques that use Chakra (i.e. special-move juice that depletes when used but slowly regenerates when you hold down on the D-Pad). These Chakra-powered moves are the bread-and-butter of your offensive arsenal and will require you to hit the initiating combo and successfully pull off an ensuing mini-task such as pressing a line of buttons in the correct order or tapping a button faster than your opponent. If you succeed at the mini-event and your opponent fails, your move dishes out more damage. If you fail, the move has little effect.

However, all the pain you pour on in the game is nothing to the pain you'll need to endure to pull off the granddaddy finishers. To rock Naruto's unnamed, face-melting knockout move, you'll need to nail the button combo and then spin the right analog stick in a circle more times than your opponent. You can try doing it with your thumb, but it's going to come down to palm-burning action. As you match wits with your opponent and fall back to the move again and again, don't be surprised if holding things is touch-and-go in the morning. This is the life of a ninja -- sacrifice!

Unwrap me June 12th!

While the controls have pretty much remained the same from the first game, the game modes have been altered just a tad. Whereas the original Ultimate Ninja let you choose a character and run through the story mode in Scenario, this sequel puts the story in Ultimate Road. Here, you'll switch to predetermined characters as the story dictates. As you progress through the tale, you'll unlock all 32 playable characters, who each have their own special moves, alternate outfits, voice work and animations.

Fans of Scenario might be alarmed to find it missing from the sequel's menu, but the mode, which tossed people into battles with specific win conditions, has been integrated into Ultimate Road. As the story progresses, you'll be faced with a number of battles where you need to finish with a certain amount of health or simply survive until the time limit is reached.